An apparatus that prints a sequential motion of an object as a plurality of images has been proposed. As an example of an apparatus of this type, an apparatus described in, e.g., Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 10-327376 is known.
According to Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 10-327376, a predetermined number of captured images are obtained and stored from a video camera output from an image capture start instruction until an elapse of a pre-set image capture time, and are printed out, as shown in FIG. 25. On this printout, blank spaces are formed aside respective captured images, and can be used as binding margins, as shown in FIG. 26A. The user can observe the captured images like a moving image by successively flipping a bundle of printouts, as shown in FIG. 26B. Such moving image will be referred to as a “flip moving image” hereinafter. Successive still images that can provide a flip moving image will be referred to as sequential still images hereinafter.
On the other hand, the position of the blank space portion on each printout in FIG. 25 can be selected from the left or right side of a captured image to cope with right- and left-handed users. More specifically, when the user designates to form a blank space portion on the left side of a captured image, a printout for a right-handed user (left binding) can be obtained; when the user designates to form a blank space portion on the right side of a captured image, a printout for a left-handed user (right binding) can be obtained.
In general, in an apparatus of this type, captured images are extracted from the whole range from the beginning to the end of image capture, and are stored to output sequential still images. According to the Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 10-327376 above, when the user designates a desired one of image capture times of 8 sec, 10 sec, and 12 sec, an image is captured during the designated image capture time, and captured images are stored at given intervals during that image capture process. For example, if the user designates 8 sec, captured images are stored at every ⅙ sec to store 48 captured images; if the user designates 10 sec, captured images are stored at every ⅕ sec to store 48 captured images.
However, although the user designates, e.g., the image capture time of 10 sec, if a portion of his or her interest corresponds to a portion from 2 sec to 9 sec, captured images contained in the first and last 1-sec intervals become useless printouts. Also, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2001-223876 contains only a description “an object image may be captured as a moving image, and frames may be extracted from the moving image at given time intervals”.
As described above, in the prior art, since images are merely extracted from the whole captured moving image sequence, printouts that can flexibly cope with user's interest cannot be obtained.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 10-327376 describes sequential display of captured images which are extracted and stored from the whole range from the beginning to the end of image capture for the purpose of confirmation by the user, i.e., a preview function. However, since sequential still images are extracted from the whole captured moving image sequence, if the user is dissatisfied with the extracted contents as a result of preview, he or she must redo the image capture process from the beginning.
Since Japanese Patent Laid-Open Nos. 10-327376 and 2001-223876 do no consider a case wherein a desired designated range is too short to generate a predetermined number of sequential still images, since setting of a desired designated range of a moving image set as an extraction range is not assumed.